[Grades] Kings v. Wizards (#6) 10/26/18

[sactowndog]

Honestly, after cycling through Mclemore, Stauskas, and even Skal and JJ, I don't mind that at all. This team has enough nice guys and Bagley was drafted so high in large part to his motor and hunger. And its not like he is wrong here. He is right, Fox should have passed the ball in that sequence. He also showed that he is ready for more minutes.

I agree. It’s good that he wants the ball when he is open. Fox played better this game but that play was one instance of Fox’s tendancy to go for the hero play over the right play. Bagley called him out on it in the moment.

Fox creates such havoc with his speed, he could easily average over 10 assists.

 

[mac]

Why is it so hard to find postgame videos/ interviews from the Kings????

 

[ppine]

Not so fast. The Kings have had some home court advantage. Now they go on the road.
The Kings are better than we expected.
They suffer from dribblitis on offense and had sequences where they threw the ball away three times in a row. They need to pass the ball to someone on their own team.
Their defense is weak in transition. They get back okay but seem to rest while the other team does lay up drills.
The interior defense is still terrible. There is little rotation from the weak side underneath.
We caught the Wizards at a time when they turned the ball over.

On the plus side, everyone has improved from last year. Bagley and Giles are making a difference. Bjelica is the magic man. The Kings can score. A little more defense, and they can be pretty good. Better than we expected. A lot better.

 

[Kangztillidie]

Refs tried to take the Kings out their game early...

 

[chief bromden]

A view from the other side would be amazing

 

[macadocious]

A view from the other side would be amazing

 

[Nokidding]

I’m trying to not get too excited but dude, is this team gonna make a push for the 8th seed this year?! Someone talk me down, lol!

We are a Kelly Obure Jr away from a 8th seed

 

[Nokidding]

KINGZ WIN!!!!!!

View from the Other Side Time?

Do one from the TImberwolves side as well

Fox is the MVP thus far
WCS should be changed to GMS (Grown Man Stein) this is the most impactful 6 games stretch he's ever had
Bagley other than the travels loved it
Buddy solid

Those 4 and Bjelica are carrying this team hard I know the Wizards are 1-4 but I'm sorry this is a quality win against Wall/Beal/Porter/Green/Morris/Rivers all vets in there primes and Washington is a talented squad just not playing well atm.

 

[ockingsfan]

We are a Kelly Obure Jr away from a 8th seed

Looking at the Wizards and their famously cheap owner, they may be looking to shed salary pretty soon. I would think Obure stays and Otto Porter goes.

If the Wizards season continues to spiral, I'm calling them up mid-season to see if we can get Otto Porter for a salary dump trade to get them under the luxury tax.

 

[dude12]

I just don’t think I’d go with Porter because of the large contract. He’s a good player but not that good. If we are patient a little longer, then maybe a more semi marquee player would want to come here. I think Joerger can piece that SF position together 7ntil we fill it with a long term piece.

 

[ESP47]

These guys are pretty fun to watch. Bjelica has been awesome so far. Reminds me of the type of player that would have fit right in with the Kings of old. He's also been coaching the guys on the floor after they've made mistakes. I'll admit that I didn't like the signing originally because I wanted the minutes to go to Skal but I was completely wrong there. This guy has been our best player by far.

They had some really good defensive stops at the end. When Fox is locked in on defense and the refs allow him to actually defend, he's tough to score on. Completely stymied Wall on that drive near the end where he had to kick the ball out and I believe Markieff traveled and got laughed at by Shumpert. That was fun.

Buddy played some good defense at the end as well. Blocking Wall? That was impressive. Even JJ wasn't bad on defense but man are those missed threes infuriating.

 

[funkykingston]

Anyone figure out why Morris was in Buddy's face and rung up for a T after his dunk?

I mean, Morris has never needed a reason to be a knucklehead but I couldn't figure out what he was upset about.

 

[Kingster]

If the Kings had made their free throws they would have buried this team. Better free throw shooting is going to make life so much easier for this team. And for us!

 

[Kingster]

That’s two games in a row where Buddy was trapped in the back court and fox wasn’t bringing the ball up.
I wonder if the coach wants the ball in his hands because of Fox’s problems at the line?

Our future opponents are watching and we have to adjust from the problem or it will cost us some games down the line but maybe we weather the storm when till we have bogi back.

I hope that's not the case. Sends the wrong message to Fox if that is the reason. Also, I'll take Fox at the free throw line over Buddy doing a dribbling act around NBA point guards any day. I hope Joerger is just "playing the long game" and thinking that the sooner Buddy can learn handling the ball under pressure, the better.

 

[Kingster]

Anyone figure out why Morris was in Buddy's face and rung up for a T after his dunk?

I mean, Morris has never needed a reason to be a knucklehead but I couldn't figure out what he was upset about.

When Morris was up in the air for a slam dunk Buddy did graze him a little with his body when Morris was in a very exposed position. It certainly didn't look intentional.

 

[The_Jamal]

Willie deserves a ton of praise too for his play. He's completely harnessing his potential this season and finally taking advantage of his elite athleticism. He's a huge reason we're 3-3 to this point and been a "1a and 1b" with Fox as our best players. This is a guy who is well worth 18+ mil/season.

Can't wait to see Bogdan and we get a staggered rotation with him and Fox and get 48 minutes of playmaking from the two of them. I think his presence, especially in the half-court offense, is going to greatly improve.

In terms of Bagley minutes, he's absolutely ready for 30+, but how do we take Bjelica and WCS off the floor right now? If we were 1-5 and just getting smashed every game, then yeah, I'd have major beef with Bagley minutes. But we're playing really competitive basketball and both guys ahead of him on the depth chart right now have been 2 of our 3 best players this season.

Would like to see coach use Bjelica at SF some, just to get Bagley some more run.

 

[Kingster]

The plus/minus stats were interesting for this game. Everybody off the bench was a minus, with Bagley leading the way with -17, probably due in part to all the traveling calls. The guy that had the least negative plus/minus off the bench was T. Williams with -2. I'd like for Williams to get more playing time.


http://www.espn.com.au/nba/boxscore?gameId=401070754

 

[Kingster]

Willie deserves a ton of praise too for his play. He's completely harnessing his potential this season and finally taking advantage of his elite athleticism. He's a huge reason we're 3-3 to this point and been a "1a and 1b" with Fox as our best players. This is a guy who is well worth 18+ mil/season.

Can't wait to see Bogdan and we get a staggered rotation with him and Fox and get 48 minutes of playmaking from the two of them. I think his presence, especially in the half-court offense, is going to greatly improve.

In terms of Bagley minutes, he's absolutely ready for 30+, but how do we take Bjelica and WCS off the floor right now? If we were 1-5 and just getting smashed every game, then yeah, I'd have major beef with Bagley minutes. But we're playing really competitive basketball and both guys ahead of him on the depth chart right now have been 2 of our 3 best players this season.

Would like to see coach use Bjelica at SF some, just to get Bagley some more run.

For the first time this season, WCS outrebounded the opposing center. Granted, Mahinmi only played 19 minutes to WCS's 33 minutes, but even in rebounds per minute WCS was superior. Still, I don't think Vlade should have a meeting with him in the next week to ink a new contract for $18 million. I think he'll take his time evaluating WCS.

I'm just not worried about Bagley's minutes. He's getting between 20-25 minutes a game, which I expected. He's going to have some very good games and some not so good, like this one. He had the worst plus/negative of any King on the floor last night. Maybe by the 2nd half of the season he'll play closer to 30 minutes, after he gets some things ironed out.

 

[206Fan]

Looking at the Wizards and their famously cheap owner, they may be looking to shed salary pretty soon. I would think Obure stays and Otto Porter goes.

If the Wizards season continues to spiral, I'm calling them up mid-season to see if we can get Otto Porter for a salary dump trade to get them under the luxury tax.

I've always said that Otto Porter Jr's contract was abyssal and insane. I don't care how good of a role player he is... in the end, he's still a role player. No one should give max money to your team's 3rd best player unless you're the Warriors.

 

[bajaden]

Anyone figure out why Morris was in Buddy's face and rung up for a T after his dunk?

I mean, Morris has never needed a reason to be a knucklehead but I couldn't figure out what he was upset about.

I think he felt that Buddy pushed him in the back when he was dunking the ball. Didn't look like much of a push to me. Frankly, I think he was just trying to get in the Kings head because things weren't going the way they wanted. And your right, it doesn't take much with Morris.

 

[bajaden]

For the first time this season, WCS outrebounded the opposing center. Granted, Mahinmi only played 19 minutes to WCS's 33 minutes, but even in rebounds per minute WCS was superior. Still, I don't think Vlade should have a meeting with him in the next week to ink a new contract for $18 million. I think he'll take his time evaluating WCS.

I'm just not worried about Bagley's minutes. He's getting between 20-25 minutes a game, which I expected. He's going to have some very good games and some not so good, like this one. He had the worst plus/negative of any King on the floor last night. Maybe by the 2nd half of the season he'll play closer to 30 minutes, after he gets some things ironed out.

I think without the turnovers (5 if I counted correctly) he wouldn't have had such a bad +/-. But your right, he'll have some great nights, and some not so great nights. So far, I'm happy with what I see out of him. He wants to be great, and is a hard worker, so not much to worry about. As for Willie, very nice game. Almost a triple double. Who would have thunk it? As for his payday, I think the plan is to let the season play out, make him a restricted free agent, and see what kind of offers he gets.

The danger of course is that some idiot GM will make him a ridiculous offer that we won't want to match. Hopefully not!

 

[funkykingston]

When Morris was up in the air for a slam dunk Buddy did graze him a little with his body when Morris was in a very exposed position. It certainly didn't look intentional.

I think he felt that Buddy pushed him in the back when he was dunking the ball. Didn't look like much of a push to me. Frankly, I think he was just trying to get in the Kings head because things weren't going the way they wanted. And your right, it doesn't take much with Morris.

That's the only thing I saw too and it looked too minor for how upset he seemed so I wondered if something else had happened earlier that I missed.

 

[The_Jamal]

Quick Marvin Bagley update:

24.3 MPG
13.7 PPG
7.2 RPG
1.2 APG
1.2 BPG
0.8 SPG

24.0% USG
58.6% TS
15.2% TRB
6.6% AST
17.6% TOV
3.9% Block %
.424 FTr
.078 WS/48
18.4 PER


A lot of really great stuff here.

 

[mac]

These guys are pretty fun to watch. Bjelica has been awesome so far. Reminds me of the type of player that would have fit right in with the Kings of old. He's also been coaching the guys on the floor after they've made mistakes. I'll admit that I didn't like the signing originally because I wanted the minutes to go to Skal but I was completely wrong there. This guy has been our best player by far.

They had some really good defensive stops at the end. When Fox is locked in on defense and the refs allow him to actually defend, he's tough to score on. Completely stymied Wall on that drive near the end where he had to kick the ball out and I believe Markieff traveled and got laughed at by Shumpert. That was fun.

Buddy played some good defense at the end as well. Blocking Wall? That was impressive. Even JJ wasn't bad on defense but man are those missed threes infuriating.

I really don't get what's up with JJ's shooting. With the kind of looks he's getting he could easily be putting up 13ppg. His defense and overall role-playerness has been pretty good. Starting to rebound more.

 

[Kingster]

I think without the turnovers (5 if I counted correctly) he wouldn't have had such a bad +/-. But your right, he'll have some great nights, and some not so great nights. So far, I'm happy with what I see out of him. He wants to be great, and is a hard worker, so not much to worry about. As for Willie, very nice game. Almost a triple double. Who would have thunk it? As for his payday, I think the plan is to let the season play out, make him a restricted free agent, and see what kind of offers he gets.

The danger of course is that some idiot GM will make him a ridiculous offer that we won't want to match. Hopefully not!

Yep. I think that is the plan. There's supposed to be a lot of $ floating around for FA next year, but there are also a ton of players that are going to be available because of those $, with a lot of guys last year opting for one-year contracts. We'll see how it pans out.

 

[TaxMan]

If we win enough games that the draft pick is >= 12 I will be really really really really really really really really really really happy.

Just to hear Bill Simmons crying about the draft position after every kings win would be good enough for this season. Honestly, if people want the national media to take us seriously again, putting up a really solid showing this year would go a long way to changing the narrative. Both Boston and Philly fans and media will be watching the team closely in the battle for our pick.

 

[TaxMan]

I really don't get what's up with JJ's shooting. With the kind of looks he's getting he could easily be putting up 13ppg. His defense and overall role-playerness has been pretty good. Starting to rebound more.

He’s just GOT to hit the wide open three. He gets probably at least 2 a night. It seems to be all in his head as he’s often so far off on the open threes that he is “supposed” to hit. He’s doing enough other things now that if he’s hitting 40%from 3 I could live with him. However is he doesn’t get consistent on that shot he’s just not going to last.

 

[rosa u podne]

Willie deserves a ton of praise too for his play. He's completely harnessing his potential this season and finally taking advantage of his elite athleticism. He's a huge reason we're 3-3 to this point and been a "1a and 1b" with Fox as our best players. This is a guy who is well worth 18+ mil/season.

He would be a beast on defense if he just holds his hands up when defending drives and close range shots. I don't understand why many professional basketball players especial bigs don't have that habit.

 

[Kingsfan23]

I’m trying to not get too excited but dude, is this team gonna make a push for the 8th seed this year?! Someone talk me down, lol!

The starters are a playoff team now, but the bench has to improve. Fox, is dominant already, consistently outclassing the best PGs in statistical game impact

At first this was a developing year, but with how dominant that starting unit is you have to consider yourself in playoff contention til your not. That means Koufos instead of Giles, for one

 

[Agent23]

The starters are a playoff team now, but the bench has to improve. Fox, is dominant already, consistently outclassing the best PGs in statistical game impact

At first this was a developing year, but with how dominant that starting unit is you have to consider yourself in playoff contention til your not. That means Koufos instead of Giles, for one

That’s tough. Front office has to make a decision if they are going to forego the development of some their prospects to make a push for the playoffs this year. Making the playoffs or at the very least competing for a spot changes everything for this organization perception wise.